Species Kogia sima (Owen, 1866)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Physeter (Euphysetes) simus Owen, R. 1866. On some Indian Cetacea collected by Walter Elliot Esq. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 6(1): 17-47 [30].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 1474a–1866.2.5.6 skull of young ♀, Waltair, Madras, India.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Handley, C.O. 1966. A synopsis of the genus Kogia (Pygmy Sperm Whales). pp. 62-69 in Norris, K.S. (ed.). Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. Berkeley & Los Angeles : Univ. California Press. [67] (see also for extralimital synonmys)

 

Generic Combinations

• Kogia sima (Owen, 1866).

 

Introduction

Known for Australia from single strandings, see Van Dyck & Strahan (2008: 813).

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Vagrant; circumglobal in temperate and tropical waters, perhaps closer inshore than K. breviceps; Clayton et al. (2006) give the general distribution of this species.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IMCRA

Timor Transition (1), Northern Shelf Province (25), Southwest Shelf Province (31), Spencer Gulf Shelf Province (33), Tasmanian Shelf Province (36)

Ecological Descriptors

Continental shelf, oceanic, pelagic.

Extra Ecological Information

Diet includes cephalopods, fish and crustaceans.

 

General References

Aitken, P.F. 1971. Whales from the coast of South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 95: 95-103

Bannister, J.L., Kemper, C.M. & Warneke, R.M. 1996. The Action Plan for Australian Cetaceans. Canberra : Australian Nature Conservation Agency 242 pp.

Gaskin, D.E. 1972. Whales, Dolphins and Seals, with Special Reference to the New Zealand Region. London : Heinemann 200 pp.

Leatherwood, S. & Reeves, R.R. 1983. The Sierra Club Handbook of Whales and Dolphins. San Francisco : Sierra Club Books xviii 302 pp.

Plön, S. 2004. The status and natural history of pygmy (Kogia breviceps) and dwarf (K. sima) sperm whales off Southern Africa. University Ph.D. thesis. Grahamstown, South Africa : Rhodes.

Rice, D.W. 1998. Marine Mammals of the World: Systematics and Distribution. Lawrence, KS : Society for Marine Mammalogy.

Ross, G.J.B. 1979. Records of pygmy and dwarf sperm whales, genus Kogia, from southern Africa, with biological notes and some comparisons. Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums (Natural History) 11(14): 259-327

Ross, G.J.B. 1984. The smaller cetaceans of the south east coast of Southern Africa. Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums (Natural History) 15(2): 173-410

van Dyck, S. & Strahan, R. 2008. The Mammals of Australia. Third Edition. Sydney : Reed New Holland 887 pp.

Watson, L. 1981. Sea Guide to Whales of the World. London : Hutchinson 302 pp.

 

Common Name References

ABRS 2001. Census of Australian Vertebrates. Australian Biological Resources Study. (Dwarf Sperm Whale)

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
11-Jun-2024		11-Jun-2024	MOVED
11-Jun-2024		11-Jun-2024	MOVED
16-Dec-2010		18-Jan-2011	MODIFIED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)